Anyone who has been involved in seeking to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ soon discover that objections to Christianity fall into a small number of categories.

A few weeks ago we at Solihull Pres took four of those objections and organised a series of short seminars in Acocks Green. They were recorded and we have put them up on our church website. The recordings consist of a talk for 20-25 minutes followed by 20mins of Q&A.

There are two interesting places in Scripture where the price of thirty pieces of silver are mentioned. The one everyone knows is that of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in Matt. 26:14,15. The other, however, is in Zech. 11:12,13 where Zechariah asks for his wages as a prophet. (There is another reference in Ex 21:34 which sets the value of a slave.)

It is worth pondering the connection between these two verses because it is not a simple “this is that” correspondence. Klaas Schilder writes on these passages and comes to a remarkable and challenging concluding application, applicable to every Christian but perhaps especially to preachers:

What can be more moving than to put Zechariah’s declaration next to the narrative of Matthew? Reading Matthew alone, I am disposed to say: What a giant in sin that man Judas was! Compared with him I am a dwarf, a Lilliputian, te Deum … But when I hear Zechariah say that it is very natural for all unfaithful sheep to dismiss the Shepherd of Israel for thirty pieces, Judas becomes as small as I. And at second thought I become as great as he in transgression. Lord, as often as I do not believe, I dispatch the Good Shepherd, I grow to Judas’ size, I attain the stature of the scribes in sin. O God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Reading Matthew alone, I think of Judas as I ponder Lord’s Day 31 (the keys of the kingdom) of the Heidelberg Catechism. Reading Zechariah also, I think of myself, of the incriminating power of the Word, of the ultimatum of God’s shepherding.
– Christ in His Suffering:Through the Garden Scene, K Schilder, p.79

It is October 31st, which in some circles is known as Reformation Day, the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. It is good to remember those who have gone before us, the giants upon whose shoulders we may sit. There was much suffering to make known the truth of God’s word and how it ought to inform worship and doctrine.

As we met yesterday for worship I was very conscious of that fact. We spent a few moments reflecting on what was achieved. Solihull Presbyterian Church owes a great deal to the Reformation, perhaps more than we realise. The day brought to a close a wonderful month for us: three adults and three children received into membership, a covenant child baptised the previous Sunday, our best average morning attendance for a calendar month ever (even with half-term holiday disruption!). We don’t know why. Everything we try seems to have little direct effect. Yet interesting things keep happening.

I continued our series in Mark’s gospel, looking at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (1:12-20). Jesus, thrust into the wilderness by the Spirit, shows us the supernatural dimension of his ministry, resisting satanic temptation which signalled the undoing of the fall of Adam, portending the good news of victory. Jesus proclaimed the gospel of God, summoning people to repent and believe. It is what he was all about – everything else fed that end. Others were called to follow him (more literally, “Here! Behind me!”), not to be teachers like the Rabbis, but to become fishers of men. How hands on! – to do what Jesus was already going, declaring the truth and calling people to repent and believe. What a model!

Jesus. Luther. SPC? Pray for us as we seek to be faithful to our Lord and honour those clay-footed giants of the past, as Luther certainly was, but most of all, that the man-fishing would go well in Solihull.

The eternal and blessed life with God in heaven, accompanied by rest and unspeakable glory, is the goal of the faith of Christians. This is the harbor of their hope, the refuge of all their desires, the crown of their consolation that they will certainly enjoy, having escaped from the travails of this miserable and fleeting earthly life, indeed, from death itself.

They will receive in heaven glorified bodies, healed of all evils, no longer afflicted by sin, ignorance, errors, illness, sadness, worry, fear, anguish, or enemies. They will be delivered from all pain and suffering. They will enjoy fully and completely the Lord their God, the fountain and inexhaustible treasure of all good things, who will pour out on them all His goodness, His infinite joy, with which He will satisfy all their thoughts and desires. They will see Him and contemplate Him face to face, without any clouds to obscure Him. They will learn of God’s wisdom with regard to the creation and redemption of His elect by means of Jesus Christ, and the reasons for all His all-powerful and wondrous works. The eternal Father will disclose His burning and unspeakable love for them, which He demonstrated by sending His Son into the world to draw them from death into eternal life. His children will be moved by His gracious work, filled with wonder, contentment, and ineffable delight, and will love their heavenly Father with a burning love, submitting themselves fully to His wisdom with eager joy. And they will submit to Him as their only sovereign and greatest good. And they will rejoice with continuous joy in His presence, magnifying His glory, singing of His goodness along with the holy Angels and the entire Church triumphant. There they will see Jesus Christ, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, and all the faithful who have preceded them, including their family members and friends who died in repentance and faith. This entire company together, with one heart and voice, will recall the goodness and infinite blessings God has shown them, celebrating with songs of thanksgiving the praises of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.

Thus eternal life is the end and fulfillment of all good things for which God has purchased us through His Son. This is the goal on which our gaze should be fixed throughout our earthly pilgrimage. This is the treasure that we should unceasingly desire. This is the hour and the blessing to which all the plans and efforts of our lives should be inclined. This is our true country, our permanent city, in which our citizenship has been acquired by the merit of the death of Jesus Christ. This is the home that we long for, amidst the banishments, the weariness, the dangerous fears of this valley of misery and the shadow of death. This is the safe refuge and the beautiful harbor toward which we sail amidst so many waves and storms that constantly trouble the world. This is the blessed land where we will dwell by means of death.

The fundamental issue in the moral questions the church addresses always come down to this: Do you believe what the Bible says is true? One may seek address those questions simply by saying, “I believe this verse means this, though you may believe it means that.” Thereby, some people may think they have given a neat body-swerve to the question.

The one issue that is hard to avoid is what the Bible says about itself. It is not just that there is a verse or two here or there that one can avoid. It is all over the Bible. Read what B. B. Warfield says about it:

The effort to explain away the Bible’s witness to its plenary inspiration reminds one of a man standing safely in his laboratory and elaborately expounding — possibly by the aid of diagrams and mathematical formulae — how every stone in an avalanche has a defined pathway and may easily be dodged by one of some presence of mind. We may fancy such an elaborate trifler’s triumph as he would analyze the avalanche into its constituent stones, and demonstrate of stone after stone that its pathway is definite, limited, and may easily be avoided. But avalanches, unfortunately do not come upon us stone by stone, one at a time, courteously leaving us opportunity to withdraw from the pathway of each in turn: but all at once, in a roaring mass of destruction. Just so we may explain away a text or two which teach plenary inspiration, to our own closet satisfaction, dealing with them each without reference to its relation to the others: but these texts of ours, again, unfortunately do not come upon us in this artificial isolation; neither are they few in number. There are scores, hundreds, of them: and they come bursting on us in one solid mass. Explain them away? We should have to explain away the whole New Testament. What a pity it is that we cannot see and feel the avalanche of texts beneath which we may lie hopelessly buried, as clearly as we may see and feel an avalanche of stones!

I’m pretty exhausted, so here are some quick summaries of the action today:

George Curry spoke on J C Ryle – how he was transformed by grace and how he learned the sufficiency of God’s grace. I know virtually nothing about JC Ryle except the contents of his “Expository Thoughts”. I was surprised to learn, however, that though a Christian he was more or less forced into the ministry out of necessity to obtain some form of income after the family’s financial ruin. Yet he turned out to be so useful and remains so to this day.

David Vaughn, an American church planter in France, spoke on the kingdom’s spread in a fallen world, from 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10. It was an impassioned exhortation for the work of mission. I can’t remember the last time I heard a talk like it. Powerful challenge to step out in faith in mission.

Iain Murray spoke on John Elias of Wales in the early 19th century. Again I knew nothing about him, but glad to find out something. Interesting study in how Word, Spirit and the man can come wonderfully together in preaching.

David Campbell on the last two sayings of Jesus on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). He took us through a number of ways that the finished work of Christ’s suffering has a bearing – on the gospel we preach, on the enemy we fight, on the church, on our future and on Jesus himself. A wonderful meditation.

One other nice happening today was to do with the staff who serve us at mealtimes. They have been great. (It is a pity that the venue will change next year because we will lose that rapport.) We gave our customary sign of appreciation after a brief vote of thanks. It was nice because some of the staff were clearly moved by the lengthy applause.

A full day, though I have to confess I slept through my alarm, missed the prayer meeting and almost missed breakfast. I was knackered yesterday. I had just enough time to let the sleep creases disappear from my face and get something to eat before the opportunity passed.

You would not expect me to say anything other than, “Today has been good” – but it has been.

This morning Phil Heaps speaking on ministry in challenging times, drawing from Romans 1:1-31. Interestingly he went backwards from the problem that the culture around us presents (vv18-31) to what Christians must do (vv1-17). The logic of Paul leads you to say that the answer is preaching the gospel to a needy world. He said it better than I can write it, but it was fresh and clear, encouraging and challenging. How can we find ways to speak to people in this culture about the gospel?

David Vaughn spoke on living under the Lordship of Christ from Romans 14:7-9. By his lordship he was thinking go his “redemptive Lordship” as the incarnate Christ (as opposed to his eternal Lordship). The hypostatic union brings its challenges to our life in union with him. It was a challenge to our self-centred piety (even asking, “Is God enough for us?” can be self-centred!) which can often be desire-centred. It challenges our attitude to prayer and worship which is not simply to honour him by expressing our need, but to act in homage to God. There were many other applications. Challenging stuff.

In the afternoon, Ian Hamilton spoke on “John Owen: A Word Association.” I may be a bit dim but I didn’t get the meaning of the title. However, the talk on Owen was wonderful, particularly on how Owen speaks of the glory of Christ with such affectional language. It should affect the heart. “Theology should provoke doxology.”

Owen’s treatise on the Glory of Christ is an exposition of 2 Corinthians 3:18, said Hamilton. This was a wonderful comment that opened up the idea of the verse, that to behold the glory of the Lord is the way we are transformed as Christians. Growth in the Christian life is not about doing our duties (though those are good) but on turning our focus to the incarnate Christ.

This has a number of applications, drawn from Owen:

making up our mind that beholding the glory of God in the glory of Christ is our greatest good.

recognise that we need the help of the Holy Spirit in this, therefore we pray that he brings his glory to me

faith is exercised on divine revelation, therefore we need to be searching the scriptures (with the help of the Holy Spirit)

we must take time to meditate on Scripture, not just read it. Owen understood that lack of this keeps us in a low state.

let our occasional thoughts of Christ be many. He should be the answer to the question, “What do you think about when you have nothing to think about?”

The last talk of the evening was from David Campbell on the 3rd, 4th and 5th sayings of Jesus on the cross. I have to admit I have never heard a series on this before, even after 35+ years as a Christian. I have heard that many people do it and some have written books on “the sayings”, but I have to confess I have tended to dismiss that idea as only a quaint, quick idea for a sermon series.

But this has been really good and pastorally helpful. Tonight we looked at Jesus taking care of his mother (John 19:26,27), the sufferings of his body, (“I thirst”, John 19:28) and the sufferings of his soul (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:45,46). Jesus’ own suffering binds these together. Pastorally, these help us by showing us how Jesus now has sympathy for us as he sits at the right hand of the Father. For me, the talk gave depth to Hebrews 4:15, “we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses”.

One other encouragement today, was for some of us EPCEW men to sit down and talk and pray with our brothers in the EPC in Ireland. We have a strong connection with them historically and the closer we are the better we can seek the glory of God.